Familial Ties
by Lialane Graest
Summary: "No, I don't. You both can go to Hell, and the only thing I'll regret about it is not being able to dissect your rotting corpses." Pure hatred dripped from his voice; Marie took a step back. His voice was slightly gentler as he spoke to her, "Not everyone had the same happy childhood that you did, Marie. Some had parents that hated them." Stein's mother is dying, will he save her?
1. A Call for Help

The call came out of the blue, completely unexpected, and completely unwanted.

"Stein." The scientist answered automatically.

"Franken?"

Stein sat silent, his breathing the only indication that someone was on the other end of the phone.

"Franken, please. Listen to me. Franken?" The voice was old, and cracked under the strain of the emotion coursing through it. "Franken, damnit, answer me! I can hear you breathing!"

Marie's hand touched his shoulder and he jolted to life. "What the hell do you want?" Stein snarled out; she looked at him quizzically, thinking he may have been talking to her before realizing that he wasn't. He ignored her, focusing on the voice coming through the phone.

"I want your help, damnit!" Stein heard the unmistakable sound of a fist hitting wood. "She's dying!"

"Old people die." Stein's voice was cold, and there was a pause on the other end of the line as Marie's hand tightened slightly on his shoulder. He could feel her wavelength soothing his anger a little, but it wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

"She's not that old. She's your mother, damnit. You have to help her." His father's voice was almost pleading, but Stein could hear the edge in the old man's voice.

"No, I don't. You both can go to Hell, and the only thing I'll regret about it is not being able to dissect your rotting corpses." Pure hatred dripped from his voice and Marie took a step back as he slammed the phone down, her hand slipping from his shoulder.

He stood, towering over the death scythe. "Franken? Who was that? What was that all about?" Marie asked as he moved to walk past her, her hand grasping the trailing portion of his lab coat's sleeve.

He stopped and turned to face her, the light glinting off of his glasses and obscuring his eyes. "That, Marie, was my loving parents calling to wish me a happy birthday." Sarcasm dripped from his voice and Marie took another step back, her forehead furrowing.

"Franken… you've never spoken about them before. Shouldn't you be happy to finally hear from them?" The confusion was apparent on the woman's face.

Stein sighed and stepped to her. "My father called to beg for my help. My mother is dying. There's no reason to be happy about hearing from them." His hand rested briefly on her shoulder, almost as if to prove to her that he wasn't losing it, his touch light before it fell away.

"You have to help her, Franken!" Marie said as the man turned from her, her hand snaking out to catch his.

"Why? They would rather have seen me dead than even spare a moment for me." Stein turned to face her. "You seem to forget that not everyone had the same happy childhood that you did, Marie. Some had parents that hated them. For all that I may seem to be a monster, what of the people who raised me? What type of person would raise a child as twisted as I became?"

"Franken, you're not a monster. You're not twisted." Stein scoffed as he walked off.

"I'm damning my mother to death. How am I not?" The heavy metal doors swung shut behind him as he left the confines of the lab.

* * *

A thousand miles away an older version of Franken Stein cursed as he stared at the phone. The anger boiling in the man's veins clouded his vision and he threw the phone against the wall, the cheap plastic shattering at the impact, a dent left in the wall.

A weak cough pulled him out of his anger and hatred and he turned to see its source. "Fanny, go lay back down," the old man said, slipping his hand under his slightly younger wife's elbow.

"I can," her voice dissolved into coughs, "sleep when I'm dead, William."

The man's stomach turned, the conversation with his son replaying in his ears as he guided the 59 year old woman back to her bed.

"Did you find him, William? Is Franken going to be coming to help?" Fanny's voice was frail.

The lie was sour on the 63 year old's tongue. "No, Fanny. I didn't. It was another dead end."

"It's just as well, I suppose. Franken wouldn't help us even if you found him. Not after what we did."

"He was a monster, Fanny. But sometime your only recourse is to turn to the monster." William's tone was bitter, as if he had something stuck in his throat that was highly unpleasant. "I'll get your help, love. Don't worry. Not even our son would let his own mother die."

Green eyes met the old man's blue ones, and silver hair that had only lightened with age fell around the woman's face as she shook her head. "He hates us, William. And he has every right to." Her head fell back against the pillow as she coughed again.

"You did try to kill him."

* * *

**A/N: I know that it isn't flushed out in the anime/manga (or if it was, I completely missed it somehow, which I doubt) but I don't see Stein having a good relationship with his parents if they are living. I also believe them to have become parents later in life- their late 20s/early 30s, hence their older ages. I plan on flushing this out, so no worries, it isn't a one-shot. Thank you for reading. I don't own Soul Eater.**


	2. The Past Revealed

"He what?" Marie's voice was incredulous as Stein sat across from her once she had coaxed him back into the lab.

"He tried to kill me. He failed, obviously, but that was the last time that I had seen or heard from them until now." Stein's head rested on the back of the couch as he spoke. "You ask why I'm not happy to hear from them? Well, that would be why. He tried to drown me."

"But why?"

A smirk tugged at his lips. "My father and mother always were old fashioned, at least when it came to my schooling. They didn't take too much to the son that wanted to cut everything apart, that was constantly being sent home for fighting when other children would pick on me. It didn't matter that I didn't need to be in school, what mattered was that they felt that I needed to be, regardless of how many grades the school wanted me to skip ahead.

"The first time my father caught me dissecting something, he beat me so severely that I missed a week of school. I realized then that I had to learn more about the human body, so that I could prevent that from happening again. I devoured every book on anatomy that I could find, and was more careful with my experimentation. Anytime I was careless enough to get caught, he would beat me, my mother watching but not doing anything except cross herself. Finally he stopped catching me, I had become too cautious, but then I grew overly confident. He caught me one night after I had finally given into the urge to open my mother up; I had thought that he was properly sedated. He didn't realize that I had already opened him up a few times until I told him as he was dragging me from the home. That was the night that he tried to drown me, my mother watching from the shoreline with tears in her eyes for her 'demon-possessed child.'"

Marie's eye was wide, and Stein noticed it.

"Surely you didn't think that Spirit was the first person that I experimented with? He was just the longest running one that didn't catch on." Stein gave Marie a sly glance and she suppressed the shudder that tried to run through her. Stein spread his arms out on the back of the couch, a slight chuckle escaping him as he reclined backwards. "Don't worry, Marie. I haven't experimented with you yet."

"Yet?" Marie was obviously nervous with his response and it drew a smirk from the man.

"I don't know what I want to do with you, Marie." There was no sarcasm, no falsehood to his statement.

"You said tried… what stopped him?" Marie gulped and quickly switched the topic, ignoring the goose bumps that were growing on her arms as she imagined being one of Stein's experiments.

"It was also the day I discovered my ability to channel my wavelength. Becoming unconscious after slamming into a tree thirty feet away is what stopped my father from finishing the job and passing it off as an accident, which he reminded me every day that I was." The man leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees as he stared at Marie, his gaze cold. "That is the type of person you want me to save, the type of person that would kill their only child."

"You said that your father did that. Your mother is the one who is sick, Franken." Marie reasoned. "It's high past time for you to mend fences with them. They're still your parents."

Stein barked out a short laugh as he fished a new cigarette out of his lab coat and lit it. "Yes, my mother, the angel. The woman who allowed my father to beat me while she ignored what was going on. The woman who watched as he drove away any person that attempted to be my friend, 'for their own good.' She was convinced I was 'devil-spawn' from the day that I was born. An unplanned, unwanted child they never thought that they would have. She may not have beaten me like my father did, but there's a reason why I go days without eating, Marie. I'm still not used to having someone who cares that I eat each day. I may as well have not existed to her once I was able to eat solid food- she seemed to sense that something was twisted in me well before I even knew it."

Marie's response was automatic, and she couldn't stop it. "That's horrible!"

"Do you understand why I said no?"

Marie took a deep breath. "You have bad blood between you and them, Franken, but you have to fix it. You can't have that blemish on your soul when you die; that you let your mother die when you could have done something about it," she looked him straight in the eye before continuing, "if you don't make this right, you'll regret it. Despite how horrible your childhood was, they are still you parents and she needs you."

Stein stared at her in disbelief. "You have to be kidding, Marie."

"I'm not. You're not a monster. You're not a twisted person. You were hurt when you were younger, and now you have the opportunity to forgive that hurt, to reunite with the people who caused it." Marie reached out suddenly, grabbing his hand, her eye pleading. "Not many people get this opportunity, Franken. You have to take it."

He stood, pulling his hand from hers and stubbing the cigarette out in the ashtray beside the couch before moving towards the front door.

"Franken, where are you going?" Marie asked, standing as well.

"To clear my head." With that he was gone, leaving just the butt of his cigarette and Marie behind him.

* * *

Fanny opened her eyes to see Father Nicolas standing over her bed. "Father?" The old woman asked, trying to sit upright, but the priest's hand gently but firmly held her shoulder down.

"Rest, sister. Your husband wanted us to look after you, it seems that he may have found your son and is going to him to beseech his aid." The father's voice was low and warm.

"William always has done everything to take care of me." Fanny smiled weakly.

The father shared a look with the nun sitting at the foot of Fanny's bed as the old woman drifted back to sleep.

"She seeks the help of Satan himself." The nun said, crossing her chest.

The priest nodded; a sad look in his eyes. "Her mind is going with the illness. She remembers not the fear and pain the child caused them both, and has convinced her husband into going after him."

"Did you know the child, Father Nicolas?"

The priest crossed himself before answering. "I only met the devil-spawned child once. It was then that I told William he needed to free himself and Sister Fanny from Satan's grasp."

* * *

Stein stood on the plateau outside the city, his body going through the training motions without the need for his conscious mind. Anger boiled in his veins that he hadn't been able to make Marie see why he couldn't bring himself to save the woman who had allowed his childhood to be a living hell. He understood though.

'_Marie is a kindhearted individual. If I allowed it she would have filled the lab with pets instead of test subjects.'_ A quick shake of his head drug the scientist from his exercises, and he glanced at the sky. The sun was sinking in the west, and he felt the distinct rumble that reminded him that his conversation with Marie, and breakfast, had been quite a few hours ago. Weariness settled in with that realization and Stein walked with heavy steps back to the lab.

The door slid open and Stein was already speaking. "Marie, I apologize for leaving-" another presence registered and Stein's head shot up, taking in the scene in front of him.

An elderly man with grey hair and blue eyes was sitting across from an obviously very agitated Marie. An undrank glass of tea sat in front of her, the man's tea was nearly empty. Rage flooded through the scientist and he immediately moved to stand between the man and Marie.

"What the hell do you think you're doing coming here?" Stein snarled.

"Is that anyway to greet your father, Franken?" The old man asked simply.

"You're not my father. She isn't my mother. Get out."

The old man stood to his feet, his back and legs cracking as he did so. "Can you live with this, Franken? Ignoring the dying pleas of your mother?"

"Just like you ignored my pleas for air when you were holding me underneath the water?" Marie's hand rested on his shoulder as his wavelength crackled around his right hand.

"She's convinced that you will. That you'll let her die."

"She was willing to let me die. Get out."

"Stein… don't do this." Marie's voice was quiet, meant for his ears only, and he glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Listen to your little woman." William Stein interjected, leaning heavily on the cane that had been sitting just out of sight beside the couch. "At least she has some common decency."

"Unlike yours." Stein said with a sneer.

Old habits are hard to break, and the cane flashed towards him in a blur, but Stein easily avoided the attack, stepping to the side. This left Marie unprepared for it, and the cane caught her in the side of the face, spinning the woman around and to the ground.

The moment hung in the air as William realized the severity of his action, a red mark that was swiftly turning purple appearing on Marie's cheek, her eye obviously blacked and her nose possibly broken. The old man looked up just in time to see the fist coming for his stomach, Stein's wavelength crackling around it even as Marie's scream pierced the air.

"Franken, don't!"

* * *

**A/N: The second installment. I hope this explains a little bit more. I believe that the Priest was able to sense the madness laying (dormant or not) in Stein, hence his reaction to him. I don't own Soul Eater.**


	3. Determination

Stein's hand stopped an inch from his father's stomach, his wavelength crackling close to the old man's midsection as Marie staggered to his feet, catching his arm with hers and leaning heavily against him. Blood poured from her nose, soaking her shirt and the left side of her face was already bruised, her eye patch up and slanted off her eye. Despite her attempt to block the flow of blood, some of it fell and landed on his lab coat.

"Franken, don't." Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

With a growl he pulled away from her, his hand moving to rest on her shoulder to steady the woman. "Marie, go to the lab. I'll come and take care of your injury momentarily." He never broke eye contact with the old man in front of him though.

His father stood, nearly eye to eye, staring at him. "At least you're willing to take care of someone." The snide remark was made after Marie finally left the room, the weapon leaning against the wall slightly.

Stein looked to see if Marie had truly left the room, his hand grabbing the older man's shirt and tugging him close. "If you ever touch her again I will finish what I started all those years ago. I will show you your heart, I will sever your vocal cords so you can't scream, and I will take you apart piece by piece." Stein's voice was low and quiet, but held a very dangerous edge. "You will live through all of it."

"I told your mother that you were a monster. Even knowing that, she asked for you, believing that over twenty years would have seen some sense into your head. Nice to know that all it added was whatever the hell that thing is." The cane flew again, and this time Stein didn't move. It tapped lightly on the screw protruding from the scientist's head. "Had to make the outside match what was on the interior, didn't you son?" William asked with a harsh laugh.

"You come here to ask for help. You barge into my home. You strike Marie, you insult me. You're just as much an idiot now as you were when I was eight."

The old man pushed past the scientist then. "You're damning your mother to a long, drawn out death." Stein could hear it then, the pain in his father's voice when he spoke about her, but it was quickly replaced as the man opened the door leading out. "I knew that you were a monster, but I had hoped at least a little bit of your mother made it into you."

Stein's voice echoed through the door after the old man. "Who's more the monster? The one called the monster or the people that created him?" Steel doors slid shut and Stein turned away from them, moving towards Marie.

* * *

He found her sitting on an operating table, her head held back and a rag pushed against her nose. She glanced down as he came in.

"You can't blame him, Franken," her voice was muffled by the rag and he stopped to look at her. "He wasn't trying to hit me. It was an accident."

"No, he was simply trying to hit me." Stein moved past her, grabbing a bottle of pain pills from the wall before walking back to her. His cool fingers cupped her chin even as his other hand removed the rag so that he could look at the injury. Marie gasped as he touched her nose, his fingers gently sliding down either side of it.

"It's not broken." Stein turned her head to the side, looking at the bruise on the side of her face, a gash in the center of it where the skin had broken from the intensity of the hit. "You won't need stitches for that. Can you take this while I go and get some ice?"

Marie nodded slightly, her head still reclined back, just a thin trickle of blood coming now. He handed her two of the pills, and got her a glass of water before leaving the lab. Marie took them and then used the rag to dab at the dwindling blood, sighing. Stein returned a few moments later with a small bag of ice wrapped in a towel.

"Did you hurt him?" Marie asked as she held the ice against her left cheek, draping it gingerly over her nose.

"You didn't want me to." Stein answered as he turned to his computer, sitting down. He didn't start typing though, just stared at her blood that was staining his lab coat.

Marie was silent for a moment. "I want you to save your mother."

Stein turned in his chair to face the injured woman, an incredulous expression on his face. "After everything, you want me to."

"They've turned to you, Franken. He came all the way here to ask for your help. What would you have done, if I was dying and there was only one person that you could turn to and they said no? If you couldn't save me?"

"That won't happen." Stein said, enunciating each word.

"Franken, put yourself in his shoes. His wife is dying and the only person he can turn to is you. You had a rocky past, but this is your chance to change everything." His chair squeaked as he turned back to face the computer.

Stein was silent and Marie slipped off the table, her head swimming a bit as she moved to him. "Franken?"

He turned to look up at her then. "Marie, you need to stay resting."

"Franken, you have to help them." Stein stared up at Marie, noting the bruising on her face, the swelling that denoted the injury that she had just taken.

"I don't understand you, Marie."

Her laugh was open and honest. "You don't have to; you just have to listen to someone who knows what they're talking about."

Stein sighed in resignation. "If you want me to save the woman that made my life Hell, that allowed that man to beat me, then I will."

"I don't want you to do it for me, Franken. I want you to do it for you. You don't need her death on your conscience." Her hand stroked the side of his face briefly before she pressed her lips to the top of his head. "You're not a monster. I know that. Prove that you're better than they are."

"Alright, Marie."

* * *

William Stein sat beside his wife's bed, holding her hand as she drifted in and out of consciousness. He dozed slightly, the patter of rain on the windows lulling him even as he fought to stay awake and with his wife for just a few moments longer. The poor excuse they had for a doctor in the little town they lived in had already told him that she'd be lucky to make it to the end of the month, the disease progressing faster than he had ever seen.

"You can't go in there!" William was pulled from his doze by a nurse's high pitched voice a moment before the door to Fanny's room opened. Standing framed in the doorway stood Stein, Marie hovering behind him, an irate nurse shouting for security.

"You should tell her to not bother, if you want my help." Stein's voice was cold and William stood, stepping between him and Fanny.

"Is that my little Franken?" The woman's voice was old and frail, slurring the words together slightly.

"It's just the doctor, Fanny. Go back to sleep." William stood between them, blocking the woman's sight of the man that was standing in the doorway.

"It is Franken. I can tell. Let me see him!" William looked over his shoulder at his wife, who was struggling to sit up in bed. With a sigh he moved to her, helping her into a sitting position. The woman's eyes opened wide as she looked at Stein.

"You've grown into such a tall man. Do you still like apples? I think I made an apple pie earlier, it should be on the window sill…" The woman's voice trailed off as she looked around the room as if she had never seen it. "William, where am I?!"

"You're in the hospital, Fanny."

Stein strode over to the woman as security made it to the room, the men grabbing Stein's arms.

"Have them stop if you want a chance at her seeing her next birthday." Stein said calmly, not resisting the men that were pulling him out of the room.

A long moment passed before William called out, "Let him go. He's… my son."

* * *

**A/N: Ah, the power that Marie has over the scientist. I don't own Soul Eater.**


	4. Anger

The security personnel released the scientist and he made a show of dusting his lab coat off before reaching up and very deliberately turning the screw in his head. His father winced at each click of the screw before the resounding clank as it turned over. Stein smirked, moving to his mother's bed.

"My little Franken. I told Willy you'd come back to us. You were the best son we could have wished for. Such high marks. Such a smart little boy. You really should have some apple pie while it's warm. It's just like I used to make it every Sunday…" The woman looked around, her face confused. _"Now where did I leave that pie…?"_

Stein's face hardened and he looked at his father. "She has Alzheimer's." He stood then and turned to leave.

"Wait! You were going to help her!"

Stein stopped and turned, his lab coat swirling around his legs as Marie watched from the door. "She's dead already. There are a great many things that I can do; curing the incurable is not one of them. If you had bothered to get her help before she was obviously so far into the disease, then it was a possibility."

A pitiful sob came from the woman sitting propped up in the hospital bed and William rubbed her shoulder gently. "What type of monster won't even try?" The old man said quietly.

Stein just looked at Marie. "Do you see? I come to help, and he still lobs insults. This was a waste, Marie. We should leave before he decides to use one of us for target practice with his cane again."

Marie just stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself. "Isn't there anything that you can do, Franken?"

The scientist stopped, staring at the weapon before looking back at his mother. "Besides making her comfortable? No. The disease is obviously so far progressed that anything I can do would only prolong her suffering, and Marie will not permit that." The last part was obviously directed at the old man.

"She's been sick for 2 weeks!" William shouted suddenly. "I got her all the help I could as soon as I could. I was even willing to come find you, because she wanted to see what type of man you had grown in to before she died!" The old man surged to his feet. "She wanted to see her grandchildren if there were any. She wanted to see what type of woman you kept with you. She wanted to apologize!"

Stein stared impassively at the older man.

"We were terrified of you," he continued in a quieter voice. "Your mother said that there was something off about you from the beginning. Something that only she could see. I didn't want to believe her, but then you started talking. You started your "experiments". I knew about them a long time before I did anything. I wanted to hope that you would grow out of it. It started with a worm, you know. You sliced it open with her kitchen knife. I watched from the window, hoping it was nothing more than a passing interest."

He looked down at his wife. "I let it go until you cut open the neighbor's cat and I realized that I couldn't let you keep going. I was hoping that disciplining you in God's name, in the way that He called for would make you see the error of your ways. I was wrong. When I found you cutting into her I knew that we had a demon-spawned child. Our sweet child, the one that we had wished for but knew we would never have was gone, replaced at birth by _you._" William's voice twisted the last word into a curse.

"Fanny didn't see it, but she knew what I was doing was right. That's why she watched. Because we were terrified of you! What happened when looking wasn't enough, and you started doing more? How long before you killed us like those animals I had to keep burying?!" Spittle flew from the old man's mouth. "It was a mistake to bring you here."

"It was a mistake to come. I've met "God". He's nowhere near as judgmental as you." Stein turned then, moving past Marie and into the hallway as his mother sobbed in the hospital bed and his father sat down heavily.

William's voice called after Marie as she followed the scientist into the hallway, the door swinging shut, "Watch yourself with that monster. I'm sorry."

"Franken-" Marie started, reaching for his lab coat. He pulled his arm from hers, walking with purpose down the hall and to the nurse's station. She nearly had to run to keep up with him.

"Can I help you?" The nurse asked politely.

"Yes. I'm Dr. Franken Stein. I need the patient in room 4242 transferred to my care. I'll also be needing her life flighted to Death City, Nevada so that I can properly treat her." Marie stared at him along with the nurse.

"Sir, I don't take care of that-" She started.

"Then get whoever does to do so. That woman's life is on the line, and every second is a second less that I have to save it." The nurse just shook her head, but picked up the phone as Stein and Marie left the hospital.

Once they got outside Marie grabbed his lab coat's sleeve, spinning the man around. He stopped and stared down at her. "Yes?"

She smiled up at him and he found himself focusing on the cut on her cheek. "I'm proud of you, Franken." She stretched on her tiptoes and kissed the tip of his nose, causing him to pull back as a small blush spread across her cheeks.

"You shouldn't be," he said softly, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not just doing this to keep her death from my conscience. If she dies while under my care I can perform the autopsy."

* * *

**A/N: Boom.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**


	5. Experimental Medication

"Oxygen levels in the blood are low. She's having difficulties breathing on her own; I have had to put her on a respirator. Her memory is nearly gone; William Stein, her husband of 39 years, is the only person that she seems to remember, though she does on occasion ask for a Mary. It's unknown who this individual may be. She has refused to eat for the last two days. Physical deterioration is mirroring the mental. It is approximated that at this rate the patient will be dead within 36 hours." Stein let his thumb slide off the recording button as he checked some notes.

Pressing again he continued, "I will be injecting an experimental drug into her system at precisely 2300 hours. It is my hypothesis that this may slow down the spread of the disease that is ravaging her system. A disease that may or may not be a mutated form of Alzheimer's; it presents with all the same symptoms, but at a much increased rate." Stein checked the clock on his computer. It was only three minutes early, and he stood, moving to the woman's side and checking her pulse. He scribbled the number down on the chart he was keeping beside her bed and picked up a syringe, checking the time.

_Two minutes_.

The scientist met the gaze of the man that was sitting on the other side of the bed from him, holding the dying woman's hand.

William's voice was strained. "What are you waiting for?"

"An experiment must have a set of parameters and controls. The time is something that will be followed."

The man lowered his head, pressing his wife's hand to his lips. "Thank you." The words were low and barely spoken, but Stein heard them.

_One minute._

"Don't thank me." William looked up at him.

"You're trying to save Fanny, why shouldn't I?"

Stein's gaze was cold. "I would have let her die in that hospital room if not for Marie. She is the reason that your wife is lying here in my lab, not any love that I hold for the two of you. I don't do this for you, I don't do this for her, and I'm not doing it out of any sense of keeping her death off my soul. I'm doing this for one simple reason- Marie asked it of me. If she lives, her life is thanks to Marie."

Stein slid the needle into the preset IV and depressed the plunger, forcing the medicine into the woman's veins.

"Perhaps you should remember that the next time that you swing your cane at someone, they could be the person that holds your life in their hands. You're lucky that Marie is such a caring person, and that she decided to not knock you through a wall for hitting her. I was going to kill you then." Stein tossed the empty syringe into a disposal unit and turned his back on the man and woman, leaving them in the darkened room by themselves.

* * *

Marie was asleep on the couch when he came into the room, and Stein chuckled as he removed the glass from her knee. The woman could sleep for hours with something on her knee, but the minute that she woke up she would spill it without fail. She didn't move when he removed the glass from her knee, and she didn't wake when he slid his arms underneath her, picking her up and climbing the stairs to her room.

She stirred a bit when he had to open her door, her head lolling against his chest as she muttered something in her sleep. Stein just smirked, setting the sleeping death scythe in her bed and pulling a blanket up and over her. He left her room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

He paced the halls, unwilling to go into his own lab because of the presence of the two individuals there. He shook his head and turned the screw in his head, tried to smoke a cigarette, and finally growled out a curse, disappearing into the basement area of the lab. There he stripped his shirt and shoes off; standing in only his pants he began to go through a training regiment.

It took almost four hours for the scientist to work through the tension that was building up in his body, the itch in his hands to recede. He stretched a bit and then grabbed his clothing, walking up the stairs and towards the bathroom and the shower. He stood underneath the hot spray for a long while before actually showering, and then retired to his room.

* * *

The smell of food woke him the next morning. He stood, stretching tired muscles before grabbing a change of clothing and dressing. He came out to find Marie in the kitchen cooking. He stepped in and yawned.

"Coffee?"

"Already made, Franken." Marie said, motioning towards the coffee pot with a wooden spoon. "Do you want sausage or bacon?"

"Do I have to eat?" He asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Yes, we've had this conversation. Coffee and cigarettes are not a proper breakfast." Marie said with a playful smile.

"Bacon." Stein sighed as he took a drink of the black coffee, feeling the soothing caffeine calming his frazzled nerves. His hands slipped into his lab coat, hunting for a cigarette to go with it.

"Thank you!" Marie said cheerfully, going over to the fridge to pull out the bacon. She cut the strips in half and added them to the pan, smiling as they crackled merrily while cooking. She was just taking them out when the door to the kitchen flew open, William Stein standing framed in it, his silver hair sticking in all directions.

The two looked at him.

"It's Fanny! She's not breathing!" The old man panted out.

Green eyes met the old man's as Stein stood to his feet. He brushed past the man and to the room Fanny was in, his long fingers resting against her throat as he felt for a pulse, before standing and turning to William-

* * *

**A/N: Are cliffhangers evil? Is she dead or not? Cast your vote before the next chapter debuts. I hope you enjoyed.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**


	6. Her

**A/N: So there seems to have been some confusion- Fanny's fate was predetermined, and was not up to popular choice. I apologize in advance to any who may be upset over the choice made for or against her survival. Things happen for a reason, dear reader.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**

* * *

Stein showed no emotion as he turned to the man that had followed him into the room, though he was desperately repressing the urge to dissect the woman lying on the bed behind him.

"Is… is she?" William Stein couldn't get the words completely out. Marie stood in the doorway behind the man, her arms wrapped around her body.

"Fanny is dead."

The words hung on the air, the old man trembling. Marie covered her mouth with her hands, looking past the two at the body on the bed before she turned and disappeared from view. Stein could hear her boots clacking as she ran down the hall, and he brushed roughly past William.

The old man caught his arm, and Stein looked down at the hand before looking at him.

"How can you be sure?!" Spittle flew from William's mouth as he stepped closer to the doctor. "Shouldn't you at least be trying to resuscitate her? Do something, damnit!"

"I understand that comprehending that someone is able to know something that you don't is a leap of faith for you, but believe me, she is dead, and has been since probably some time last night." Stein's voice was cold as he glared at the man holding his arm. A sadistic grin crossed the man's face, and he didn't bother to erase it as he continued, his voice low. _"You slept with a corpse last night. Now who's the monster?"_

William's fist slammed into Stein's stomach, the meister letting out a small oomph as it did so. The man's voice rose in a frantic scream, "You killed her intentionally, didn't you?! That shot was a cocktail designed to kill her slowly so you could get your sick jollies out of cutting your own _mother's _body apart!"

Stein pulled his arm roughly from his father's grasp, his left hand slamming into the man and knocking him out of the room.

"Unless you want to join her in her grave, I suggest that you leave the lab now. I need to find Marie- I do not need to deal with a man that is so grief-stricken that he would accuse the only person who had even a slim chance of saving his wife of murdering her."

William Stein looked up from his heap on the floor, murder in his eyes as he watched the scientist stride in the direction that Marie had ran in. He looked into the room he had been forcibly ejected from and felt the tears prick in his eyes. He crossed his chest and made a promise then, to God and to Fanny.

"_I will cleanse the world of his taint. You and I brought him into it, Fanny. He took you out of it, and I'll stop him before the cycle can repeat and anyone else loses their life to him."_

* * *

Marie sat on her bed, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on her knee. Tears were streaming from her good eye and she hiccupped sobs. She didn't hear the door open or realize that someone had entered until she felt hands on her shoulders and someone gently tugging her backwards. She didn't have to look to know who it was. With a wordless sob she let Stein awkwardly hold her as she sobbed against his lab coat.

He had only held her once before, when BJ had been killed, and that had been as awkward as this was. He let her cry though until her tears had stopped falling before he let her sit back on the bed, pulling her knees back up to her chest.

"I suppose it is good that someone will shed tears for her." Stein said.

"You don't feel sad at all? She was your mother." Marie asked, wiping tears from her cheek with her right arm.

"I told you how they treated me. You're the only reason she was here in the first place, Marie. I hold no sorrow over her death."

"Oh… still… I'm sorry, Franken…" Marie's voice trailed off.

"You have nothing to apologize for." Stein stood then. "If you're alright, I'm going to go and start the autopsy. I need to check and see how the damage to her brain compares to that of an Alzheimer's patient."

Marie just stared at him. _'He put off her autopsy for me?'_ She thought to herself, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"Marie?"

"I'm… I'm fine, Franken. You should check on your dad before you do though… I'm sure he's taking this pretty roughly."

The look on Stein's face was dark. "I don't give a damn."

"Franken-"

"Marie, I don't give a damn how he's taking it. My only concern was trying to save her. I failed, he accused me of murder, and I came to see how you were taking the death of someone you never even knew. Now, I am going to and perform the autopsy." He stood quickly, leaving her room in a flurry of stitched coat tails.

* * *

Stein was absorbed in his autopsy when he heard the first crash. He thought nothing of it as he carefully mapped out the damage done to Fanny's brain. The second crash, followed swiftly by a third, caused him to snap his head up, a curse on his lips.

Marie's sudden scream caused his scalpel to fall from his hands and he stripped off his gloves, darting out of the lab and into the hallway. Now that he was focusing he could clearly feel William's wavelength in the room with Marie. He wasn't sure when the man had returned, and he moved as quickly as he could.

He came around the corner and skidded to a stop.

The old man stood in the center of the room and Marie was against the wall opposite him. William's back was to him, but he craned his head over his shoulder to smile eerily at the scientist.

"You asked me who the true monster was, and then you killed my wife." Stein stayed still assessing the situation as the old man stepped to the side, twisting his body to reveal the gun that was trained on Marie. "Well, I have the answer for you. You, you are a monster. But even a monster has a weak spot, and I know what yours is."

The grin turned into something else entirely. "Yours is her."

He pulled the trigger.


	7. A Repeated Mistake: Injuring Marie

Stein knew that emotions led to weakness. That they led to problems. That was the reason why he kept them under a tight rein; emotions led to madness, without fail.

He could feel the madness well up as he saw Marie transform only to slam against the wall a second later in her human form, her head snapping back and slamming into it hard even as William leveled the gun at Stein himself.

Red was blossoming against Marie's pale skin. The woman was sliding down the wall, a trail of the same red following her downward descent. She was crumpling against the base of the wall, her breathing ragged and he could see tears falling, muffled sobs escaping her as she clutched her hand over the wound in her chest. The man with the gun was standing between him and Marie.

Someone was standing between him and the source of his madness. The woman that could drive him to it without his consent. The woman that would pull him from it every time, not knowing that she was partially the cause. The man with the gun was blocking his way to her, and the red was leaking from her slowly, the sobs fading.

He took a step towards her and the gun cocked back, another shot ready to fly. "You took Fanny from me, you sick bastard! You're no son of mine!"

Stein ignored the man and moved towards Marie, calling her name. She lifted her head and he saw the blood on her lips. Her eye was unfocused and she blinked as she tried to push herself into a sitting position only to crumple again. Stein darted forward and the gun rang out again. A foot away from his head a beaker shattered and Stein stopped, turning to face the old man.

"You have what, 6 more bullets? You shot a defenseless woman. You just attempted to shoot me. Do you think that you'll be able to fire them all before I tear you to pieces?" A hysterical giggle slipped from Stein's throat as he rushed at the man.

The man fired desperately, all of them missing the incoming scientist before the gun went flying from William's grasp. Stein's hand slammed into the man's stomach and sent him crashing into the wall. The man hit hard and collapsed to the ground unconscious. Stein took a step toward him with a sadistic grin covering his face when a weak cough reminded him of his surroundings.

He was at Marie's side a second later, his lab coat off and balled up against the gunshot wound in her chest, his hand pressing against the exit wound on her back. She moaned weakly as Stein gathered her up in his arms, rushing her back to the lab, her head lolling against his chest in a terrible mockery of the previous night when he had carried the death scythe to bed.

His skilled hands removed Marie's shirt, examining the entrance wound as she moaned softly in pain even while unconscious. A moment later he was injecting an anesthetic into the area around the wound, making sure that his lab coat was now balled up against the exit wound on her back.

"Marie, hold on. Please." Stein's voice was low as he carefully worked on the wound, making sure her airways weren't obstructed at all before checking to see if the chest wound was a sucking chest wound. It was. Carefully covering the wound with a sterile occlusive dressing he prepped quickly for the surgery that was necessary.

Her vitals were lower than he would normally want in a patient that he was prepping for surgery, but he didn't have a choice. As he held the scalpel in his hands and took a deep breath to steady himself, a breathing tube already in place in Marie's throat and sedatives rushing through it, he heard the click of the hammer of a gun.

William was behind him, the gun held to his head.

"You're a fool." Stein growled out, continuing the surgery that would stabilize Marie. "You could have left; you could have fled and disappeared. It might have prolonged your miserable life."

There was a hollow click as William pulled the trigger, then the sound of the gun hitting the ground. A thud followed it a moment later.

* * *

Marie awoke to a searing pain in her chest and back. She was aware of IVs in both of her arms and something cool touching her hand. She blinked her eyes open to find Stein asleep beside the bed, his hand wrapped around hers.

It took her a moment to realize that there was blood under his fingernails. Memories rushed back suddenly and she froze, her breath catching painfully in her throat.

"Fr-Franken?" She stammered out and the scientist opened his eyes almost immediately.

"Marie, you're awake. That's good," he said, standing to his feet. She could hear the bones in his back crack as he did. "How is the pain level?"

She lied. "It's fine."

He just smirked down at her and walked off, retrieving a syringe that he slid into her IV line and injected. A moment later relief rushed through her aching body, and she couldn't stop the sigh of relief.

"That's what I thought," he murmured quietly as he turned away from her. She brought a trembling hand up to pull back the gown she was in and look at the wound.

It was covered with white gauze, completely concealing whatever was underneath it. She winced a bit as she shifted; feeling what had to be the same gauze on her back.

"I tried not to leave a scar. Unfortunately, that required using small stitches, which required more of them. While the scarring will be less, I'm afraid that the removal will be a little more unpleasant." Stein said.

"Franken…"

"Yes, Marie?"

She was silent for a second. "There's blood underneath your fingernails…"

A smirk crossed the scientist's face. "Yes, it appears that there is." He stood then and walked over to the sink, carefully washing and cleaning his hands.

* * *

**A/N: Ut-oh. I think that someone may have made a mistake. Perhaps… a fatal one? William Stein; currently MIA.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**


	8. Long Distances, Funerals, and Returns

Stein left her side a few moments after washing the blood from his hands, his words as he did so sending a chill down the woman's spine.

"You'd be proud of me, Marie."

He returned a couple minutes later, a hand on his father's shoulder as he guided the man into the room. Both of his father's eyes were blacked, and a bit of drool was leaking from the man's mouth. A twisted grin crossed Stein's face as he looked at the man and then over at Marie.

"I didn't kill him. I wanted to, yes. I wanted to make him suffer for everything that he had ever done. But I knew that you wouldn't approve. That you would stop me, even if it meant risking injury to yourself. I don't know why you would risk anything for the man that had just tried to kill you, but I knew that you would." His grin curved into a smirk. "Technically, he was unconscious for the procedure."

Marie swallowed hard. "Procedure?"

A single giggle escaped Stein's throat as his eyes glassed over momentarily. "Yes. I performed a trans-orbital lobotomy on him. I should have done so years ago on both mother and him." Stein's voice lost the cheerful edge it had and gained a hard one. "Had I done so, you would not have been injured, even if your own emotions were the essential cause of the injury."

Marie just stared at him, and Stein cocked his head, smirking.

"You didn't want me to kill either of them. Now you don't have to worry about him injuring you ever again. He never will. In fact… he may never do anything for himself ever again." The man's twisted grin was back in full force.

"That's horrible!" Marie said finally. "How could you do that to someone?!"

As the sadism crept over Stein's face Marie realized that she wasn't really talking to the person that she thought she was. Stein was still deep in his madness, and only enough of his sane mind remained to let him remember the reason for what he was doing.

"It was easy. All it takes is an icepick and a firm swing with a small hammer. It's much like making scrambled eggs."

Marie's stomach roiled and she leaned over the side of the bed, vomiting the contents of it out. Stein made a tsk'ing sound as he walked away from William Stein and grabbed the items needed to clean up the mess. Marie flinched away from him and he looked at her curiously. After cleaning the mess up he turned to his desk and picked up a hypodermic. Walking back to Marie his hand darted out, pinning her left arm to the bed.

"Let's make sure that you don't do anything drastic."

"Franken, don't!"

He depressed the plunger, the medication surging from the needle and into the woman's arm. A few seconds later the world began to spin and a moment later all Marie knew was black and a rising giggle that echoed in her mind as she lost consciousness.

* * *

Marie opened her eyes slowly a while later, the room she had been sleeping in empty except for her. The IVs were gone from her arms and while she felt weak, there were no new sources of pain. It took her a moment to realize what room she was in.

Stein's.

She hesitantly pushed herself into a sitting position, the ache in her back and chest much less than it had been the last time that she had woke. A cautious hand pulled back the gown she was still in and looked down at the gauze that was covering her injury. Just as she reached out to peel it back and look at the wound the door to the room opened and Stein stepped in, flipping on the overhead light.

"Don't. You run the risk of infection if you uncover the incision now." Stein said as he carried a bowl of lightly steaming soup over to her. He balanced on the edge of the bed, close to her but not touching, and settled the tray the soup was sitting on on his knee. "It should be cool enough to not burn you."

Stein dipped the spoon into the bowl and held it out to her, his hand underneath it to catch anything that might drip off. Marie just stared at him. "You have to open your mouth. Even I can't feed you through osmosis, Marie."

She bit her lip and looked at the bowl. "What is it?"

"Soup. Beef broth really. There's nothing in it except items from the kitchen." Marie could almost hear the pain in his voice, though his face remained impassive.

Hesitantly she opened her mouth, allowing him to feed her a bite. It tasted like beef broth, but it was rich in flavor and even with his reassurances she worried that he wasn't completely himself again yet.

"I'm sorry."

Marie blinked and looked at him.

"I… I realized what I did sometime this morning. I'm still not sure when I slipped; I remember the surgery on your upper chest and back, and I remember putting the IVs and breathing tube in and removing the breathing tube. I don't remember what I did to William at all. I remember giving you a shot of pain medication… and then everything is blank until I found myself cooking." He met her gaze. "I tested the soup before I brought it to you."

"You… you weren't you…" Marie said quietly.

"No."

Silence was heavy in the air as he held out another spoonful of liquid to the woman. She opened her mouth obediently, allowing him to feed her. They continued for a while until Marie turned her head when he offered her another spoonful.

"You need to eat; you lost a lot of blood. I kept you on an IV for a while, but I wanted to make sure that you didn't have to stay on it too long. I know from experience that feeling like you're starving because you're being fed parenterally isn't comfortable."

"Your father…"

Stein sat the spoon into the half-empty bowl and stood, his back to her as he moved towards the door. "He's fine. I doubt that he'll ever recover, but for the moment, he is fine. I'll have to have him admitted to a nursing home where they can take care of him."

Marie was silent.

"You told me once I wasn't a monster, Marie. Perhaps now you see the truth." Stein said over his shoulder from the doorway.

"You're not. That wasn't you, Franken." There was conviction in her voice. "You pulled yourself from your madness to save me. I could just as easily have been in William's place. I could have died then, bled out on the floor while you were lost. But I'm not, and I didn't. Even when you lost yourself, you were still protecting me… The monster here was your father."

Stein stood for a moment looking at her, what could have been disbelief on his face.

"I mean it, Franken. I trust you."

He turned then and left the room, the door closing quietly behind him.

* * *

William was present for Fanny's funeral, the man's blank eyes staring at the cold Maine sky. Stein had had the body transported back to William and Fanny's hometown, placing William in a nursing home there.

Father Nicolas himself was presiding over the funeral, the priest pointedly ignoring Stein's presence. Marie stood beside him, her wounds still tender but healing. It was a long, solemn affair, multiple people speaking of how wonderful of a person that Fanny was, telling beautiful stories of the woman. Stein remained silent the entire time.

William cried, seated in his wheelchair, when they began to lower the coffin into the ground. It was the first emotions the man had shown since he had been lobotomized. The nurse that was with him held a rag to the side of the old man's face to stop the flow of tears.

Marie slipped her arm through Stein's as they left the funeral. "You didn't have to come, you know that," she said as she leaned against the man, shivering slightly, her chest and back still aching.

"You wouldn't have been pleased if I didn't. Besides, William needed brought to the nursing home anyway." His arm moved slightly, and Marie felt the blush creep over her face as it settled around her shoulders. "Now, though, we need to go home."

Marie just nodded.

* * *

A little over a week later Marie sat still as Stein removed the stitches from her chest. He had already done the ones in her back the night before, but she still winced as each of the tiny stitches had to be removed.

"Relax, Marie. If you keep tensing it will just make the removal more painful." His face was incredibly close to her chest as he almost had to squint to find the small stitches. She took a deep breath as he removed another. "Four more to go."

Marie gave a sigh of relief, her breath ruffling his hair slightly. The action must have bothered him because he stopped for a second, his hand rising to pat his hair back down almost unconsciously. Marie smiled and waited. She felt the next stitch come lose and she felt herself tense. Biting her lip she exhaled again through her nose, watching as it ruffled the man's hair again.

He looked up at her. "Stop."

Marie couldn't hide the smile she was wearing and he just went back to removing the stitches. He removed the next two as Marie held her breath, but when he went to remove the last one she hissed in pain, jerking back. His hand shot out immediately, catching her around the waist before she could fall backwards.

"That one hurt," she said petulantly.

Her eyes went wide as he leaned the few inches it took and pressed his lips against the mostly healed wound. "Does it hurt now?" He asked with a straight face as he pulled away, looking at her.

Marie knew that she had opened her mouth, but no words came out, and Stein just smirked. "The one thing my mother ever did that was kind for me, before I grew too old. She would tell me, 'Franken, if you ever get hurt, mother will kiss it better.' It was a lie, but she may not have realized just how much she would hate me when I was older than two."

Marie bit her lip. "I'm sorry that you had such a horrible childhood, Franken…"

He smiled, not a smirk, not a forced smile. "I wouldn't be who I am, Marie. My family may have hated me, but it pushed me to be who I was, so I suppose that I should almost thank them. Not that I don't hate them still for everything." He tilted his head to the side. "Besides, it would appear that the family I choose now actually cares for me, and that is all that matters."

Marie felt herself blush as she looked at him and Stein smirked. He stood then, and moved to dispose of the pieces of the stitches and his gloves. He looked over his shoulder as he left. "I thought we should go and get something to eat. You should take it easy for a few days after having the stitches removed."

They both knew that she didn't have to, but Marie didn't object, just slipped her shirt back on and moved to his side.

* * *

**A/N: I hope that you have enjoyed this. I know it was awfully angsty; but that is the way the cookie tends to crumble when I'm writing. Let me know, if you don't mind, your opinion on both Fanny and William's fates. And yes… a trans-orbital lobotomy (also known as an icepick lobotomy) is done by inserting an icepick through the eye socket, breaking through the fragile bone, and waving it around.**

**Thank Death that they're not practiced regularly anymore, neh?**

**I don't own Soul Eater- Fanny and William were my creations though.**


	9. A Bit of Background

**A/N: This is spawned from my one word prompt for today of "suspended" from TheAUWalker.**

**It features Young!Stein and his parents, so I figured placing it into Familial Ties would be nice, as it would give a bit of background to the relationship I had developed between him and his parents in the fic.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**

* * *

"You've been suspended, again." His father wasn't asking, he was simply stating the fact. It hung in the air; much like young Franken Stein's head was hanging down towards the ground, a red hand print from his mother on his cheek. The boy didn't answer.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do with you. I've seen the things that you do when you think your mother and I aren't watching." Stein's head shot up, surprise painted across his face as his father continued. "And now you're getting sent home and suspended for fighting. Why can't you just be a normal child?"

Stein swallowed. "I'm… sorry?"

William just shook his head. "Don't bother apologizing. Go to your room, there will be no supper for you tonight. Think about the sins that you're committing, maybe your empty stomach will help to convince you. You can thank you mother for you not getting a lashing. She believes that at this point they're useless. You obviously don't feel pain like normal people. Now get out of my sight."

The boy just turned and walked up the stairs and into his sparsely furnished bedroom. Where most normal 9 year olds would have a game system or maybe a TV, perhaps even something as fancy as a computer, Stein had nothing except a desk for his homework and books. He pulled one off the bookshelf and sat down on his bed, his stomach already grumbling.

Fanny hadn't packed him a lunch, so he'd had nothing to eat since yesterday.

He ignored the ache in his stomach as he had so many times before and opened the book, flipping idly through pages that he had already read a dozen times over and committed to memory. He sat immersed in his books until his door suddenly opened and his father was standing in the doorframe.

"Lights out. If you leave this room tonight, it's straight to the bathroom and back. I better not find you out of it; do you understand me, Franken?"

Stein just nodded, knowing better than to provoke the man in front of him. Despite his mother's wishes, he was fully aware that William could and would still beat him. His hands itched as the man left, and despite himself, he found himself digging underneath the bed.

He retrieved his treasure a few moments later, and held the shiny scalpel up in the dim light coming through his window. A long minute later he had found the anesthetic he had secured and some thread. Tonight he would open his mother up. It would be glorious and a fitting punishment for them trying to starve him to death. He could remove portions of her stomach… make it impossible for her to hold more than a few bites of food at a time.

Perhaps he would even do it in their bed, letting the blood soak the sheets as his father slept beside her, soundly unconscious. His face twisted into a smirk. Yes, that would do.

'_I have to be careful. The incision can't be that large, nothing that she would question. An inch at the most… such a shame. Next time though, when I no longer have to depend on them… I will take them both apart in minute detail.'_

Stein curled up against his door, listening for the chimes of the clock. At the stroke of 1 he slipped from his room and swiftly injected the anesthetic first into his father, then into his mother. A gleeful grin on his face he slid the blankets back from his mother's sleeping form and stood there for a moment, debating on where to cut into her.

He finally decided on her abdomen. Perhaps he could damage her uterus enough that she would never be able to bring another child into the world that they had so soundly ruined for him.

The scalpel flashed in the moonlight, descending in an arc towards her stomach.

His father's hand caught his wrist, and Stein's green eyes met his father's tired blue ones, both sets filled with anger.

"Monster!" William yelled out, yanking Stein over Fanny and throwing him against the wall. "A hell-spawned child!"

Adrenaline burned the anesthetic from his father's veins as he dragged the boy out of the house, the scalpel clattering to the ground somewhere. Fanny had woken up in the tussle and Stein cursed the anesthetic he had used.

Just as the curse left his mouth water entered it, his father's hands around his throat and holding him underneath the surface of the lake that was by their home. Dimly he could hear his father's voice screaming to God to forgive Franken for the sins that he had committed in this life.

William never asked God to forgive him the sin of trying to kill Stein.

The boy floundered, desperate to reach air, his hands breaching the surface of the water; oxygen was just a foot from his struggling form. Through the water he could see his mother standing just beyond the water's edge, tears in her eyes as she crossed herself.

"Forgive him, and take him back to you!" William's voice screamed out.

Something primal snapped in Stein as his vision began to blacken and there was a surge of bright yellow light. William went flying, slamming into a tree a ways away. Stein surfaced, panting, the water streaming down him in torrents.

Fanny was running towards William, the man limp on the ground. Stein ran back to the house, grabbed the meager possessions he had and some food. He then took the money in his father's wallet and fled the home.


End file.
